Conway Twitty (born
Harold Lloyd Jenkins; September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993) was an
American musician and singer.
He had success in the
country,
rock,
R&B, and
pop genres. From 1971 to 1976, Twitty received a string of
Country Music Association awards for duets with
Loretta Lynn.
Although never a member of the
Grand Ole Opry, he was inducted into both the
Country Music and
Rockabilly Halls of Fame.
| Conway Twitty |
|---|
1974 promotional photo
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Harold Lloyd Jenkins |
| Born |
September 1, 1933
Friars Point, Coahoma County, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Origin |
Helena, Phillips County
Arkansas |
| Died |
June 5, 1993 (aged 59)
Springfield, Missouri, U.S. |
| Genres |
Country, rock and roll |
| Occupation(s) |
Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments |
Vocals, guitar |
| Years active |
1956(officially 1958)-1993 |
| Labels |
MCA, Elektra, MGM, Decca, Sun Records, Warner Bros. Records |
| Associated acts |
Loretta Lynn, Sam Moore, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Twitty Bird Band, Joni Lee |
Awards
Academy of Country Music
Country Music Association
Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame
Grammy Awards
Rockabilly Hall of Fame
Covers
Twitty was known to cover songs—most notably "
Slow Hand" which was a major pop hit for
the Pointer Sisters, "
The Rose" which was a major pop hit for
Bette Midler, and "
Heartache Tonight" which was a major pop hit for The
Eagles; Twitty's songs have also been covered numerous times, including four notable covers,
George Jones' rendition of "Hello Darlin",
Blake Shelton's "
Goodbye Time",
The Misfits and
Glen Campbell [4] versions of "
It's Only Make Believe" and Elvis Presley's version of "
There's a Honky Tonk Angel (Who'll Take Me Back In)".
In addition, Ken Checker's version of "
I'd Love to Lay You Down" was sung and received some airplay, mostly in the concert realm.
Some artists have had hits with songs that Twitty recorded but never released as singles.
Among these are:
The Oak Ridge Boys's top five hit,
"I Wish You Could Have Turned My Head (And Left My Heart Alone),"
originally from Conway's 1979 album
Crosswinds,
Steve Wariner's "
I'm Already Taken" from Twitty's 1981 album
Mr. T (which Wariner wrote),
Lee Greenwood's "It Turns Me Inside Out" from Twitty's 1982 album Southern Comfort,
John Conlee's "
In My Eyes" from Twitty's 1982 album
Dream Maker,
John Schneider's "What's a Memory Like You (Doin' in a Love Like This?)" from Twitty's 1985 album
Chasin' Rainbows,
and
Daryle Singletary's "
The Note" and
Ricky Van Shelton's "
Somebody Lied" from Twitty's 1985 album
Don't Call Him a Cowboy.
Biography
Early life
Conway Twitty was born Harold Lloyd Jenkins on September 1, 1933 in
Friars Point in
Coahoma County in northwestern
Mississippi.
He was named by his great uncle, after his favorite
silent movie actor,
Harold Lloyd. The Jenkins family moved to
Helena, Arkansas when Harold was ten years old.
In Helena, Harold formed his first singing group, the
Phillips County Ramblers.
[citation needed]
Two years later, Harold had his own local
radio show every Saturday morning. He also played
baseball, his second passion.
He received an offer to play with the
Philadelphia Phillies after high school (
Smiths Station High School), but he was drafted into the
United States Army.
He served in the Far East and organized a group called The Cimmerons to entertain fellow GIs.
[1]
Wayne Hause, a neighbor, suggested that Harold could make it in the music industry.
Soon after hearing
Elvis Presley's song "
Mystery Train", Harold began writing rock and roll material.
He went to the
Sun Studios in
Memphis, Tennessee and worked with
Sam Phillips, the owner and founder, to get the "right" sound.
[citation needed]
Stage name
Accounts vary of how Harold Jenkins acquired his stage name of Conway
Twitty.
Allegedly, in 1957, Jenkins decided that his real name wasn't
marketable and sought a better show business name.
In
The Billboard Book of Number One Hits Fred Bronson states that the singer was looking at a road map when he spotted
Conway, Arkansas, and
Twitty, Texas, and chose the name Conway Twitty.
Another account says that Jenkins met a
Richmond, Virginia, man named W. Conway Twitty Jr. through Jenkins' manager in a
New York City
restaurant.
The manager served in the US Army with the real Conway
Twitty.
Later, the manager suggested to Jenkins that he take the name as
his stage name because it had a ring to it.
In the mid-1960s, W. Conway
Twitty subsequently recorded the song "What's in a Name but Trouble",
lamenting the loss of his name to Harold Jenkins.
Pop and rock & roll success
In 1958 using his new stage name, Conway Twitty's fortunes improved while he was with
MGM Records, and an
Ohio
radio station had an inspiration, refraining from playing "I'll Try"
(an MGM single that went nowhere in terms of sales, radio play, and
jukebox play), instead playing the B-side, "
It's Only Make Believe", a song written between sets by Twitty and drummer Jack Nance when they were in
Hamilton, Ontario, playing at the Flamingo Lounge.
[2]
The record took nearly one year to reach and stay at the
top spot on the
Billboard
pop music charts in the US, as well as No. 1 in 21 other countries,
becoming the first of nine top 40 hits for Twitty.
It sold over four
million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc by the
RIAA.
[3]
That same year, country singer Tabby West of ABC-TV's
Ozark Jubilee heard Twitty and booked him to appear on the show.
[1]
When "It's Only Make Believe" was first released, because of voice
similarities, many listeners assumed that the song was actually recorded
by
Elvis Presley, using "Conway Twitty" as a
pseudonym.
Twitty would go on to enjoy rock and roll success with songs including "
Danny Boy"
(Pop No. 10) and "Lonely Blue Boy" (Pop No. 6).
"Lonely Blue Boy",
originally titled "Danny", was recorded by Presley for the film
King Creole but was not used in the soundtrack.
[citation needed]
Country music career
Twitty always wanted to record country music and, beginning in 1965,
he did just that.
His first few country albums were met with some
country DJ's refusing to play them because he was known as a rock 'n'
roll singer.
However, he finally broke free with his first top five
country hit, "The Image of Me", in July 1968, followed by his first
number one country song, "
Next in Line", in November 1968.
Few of his singles beginning in 1968 ranked below the top five.
In 1970, Twitty recorded and released his biggest country hit, "
Hello Darlin'",
which spent four weeks at the top of the country chart and is one of
Twitty's most recognized songs.
In 1971 he released his first hit duet
with
Loretta Lynn, "
After the Fire Is Gone". It was a success, and many more followed, including "
Lead Me On" (1971), "
Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (1973), "
As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone" (1974), "
Feelins'" (1975), "I Still Believe in Waltzes", "
I Can't Love You Enough", and many others.
Together, Conway and Loretta (as they were known in their act), won four consecutive
Country Music Association awards for vocal duo (1972–75) and a host of other duo and duet awards from other organizations throughout the 1970s.
In 1973, Twitty released "
You've Never Been This Far Before",
which was not only No. 1 in country for three weeks that September but
also reached No. 22 on the pop charts.
Some more conservative disc
jockeys refused to play the song, believing that some of the lyrics were
too sexually suggestive.
In 1978, Twitty issued the single "The Grandest Lady of Them All"
honoring the Grand Ole Opry, but for the first time since 1967, a single
of his failed to reach top ten status as some radio stations refused to
play a song honoring the property of a competitor (broadcast by
WSM-AM).
Nevertheless, the single reached the top 20, peaking at No. 16 but it
was well below expectations, and this set in motion the changes that
were to take place in his career, including a new hairstyle, changing
from the slicked-back
pompadour
style to the curlier style he would keep the rest of his life.
However,
Twitty's popularity and momentum were unaffected by the song as his
next 23 consecutive singles all made it into the top 10, with 13 peaking
at No. 1, including "
Don't Take It Away", "
I May Never Get to Heaven", "
Happy Birthday Darlin'" and remakes of major pop hits such as "
The Rose" and "
Slow Hand".
In 1985, going by all weekly music trade charts, the song "
Don't Call Him a Cowboy"
became the 50th single of his career to achieve a No. 1 ranking.
He
would have five more through 1990, giving him a total of 55 No. 1 hits.
George Strait eclipsed the feat of 50 No. 1 hits in 2002 with his single "
She'll Leave You With a Smile" and then reached No. 1 for the 56th time in 2007 when the single "
Wrapped" hit the top on the Media Base 24/7 list.
Throughout much of Twitty's country music career his recording home was Decca Records, later renamed
MCA.
He signed with the label in late 1965 but left in 1981 when it appeared
MCA was marketing and promoting newer acts, plus management at the
label had changed and other factors brought on the decision.
He joined
Elektra/Asylum in 1982.
That label merged with its
parent company,
Warner Bros. Records
in 1983. He stayed on with Warner Bros.
Records through early 1987 but
then went back to MCA to finish out his career. In 1993, shortly before
he died, he recorded a new album,
Final Touches.
Baseball
Twitty joined entrepreneur
Larry Schmittou and other country music stars, such as
Cal Smith,
Jerry Reed,
Larry Gatlin, and
Richard Sterban, in 1977 as investors in the
Nashville Sounds, a
minor league baseball team of the
Double-A Southern League that began play in 1978.
[4]
He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the team's inaugural home opener at
Herschel Greer Stadium on April 26, 1978.
[5]
Twitty City
Twitty lived for many years in
Hendersonville, Tennessee, just north of
Nashville, where he built a country music entertainment complex called
Twitty City at a cost of over $3.5 million.
Twitty and Twitty City were once featured on the TV series
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. and was also seen in the Nashville episode of the
BBC series
Entertainment USA, presented by
Jonathan King.
Opened in 1982 it was a popular tourist stop throughout the 1980s and
into the early 1990s; it was shut down in 1994 following a year-long
tribute show called Final Touches, when fans and peers in the music
business dropped by.
The complex was auctioned off and bought by the
Trinity Broadcasting Network the #1 Faith-based network in the world; now known as Trinity Music City, USA, it is open to the public, with free tours.
Personal life
Twitty was married four times, to three different ladies. His first
marriage lasted from 1953 to 1954.
He had married because Ellen was
pregnant with his son, Michael. His second marriage, and longest, was to
his wife Mickey.
Twitty married Mickey in 1956 and had his three other
children by her, Kathy, Joni Lee, and Jimmy Twitty.
Mickey and Conway
had married, divorced and then remarried again quietly in their years
together.
By 1984, after 28 years of marriage on and off, the stress of
her husband being away so often took its toll on Mickey, and she and
Conway divorced.
In 1987, Twitty married his 36-year-old office
secretary, Delores "Dee" Henry.
They were married until Twitty's death.
Death
In June 1993, Twitty became ill while performing at the Jim Stafford Theatre in
Branson, Missouri,
and was in pain while he was on his tour bus.
He collapsed and was
rushed to the hospital.
He was rushed into surgery, but died in
Springfield, Missouri, at Cox South Hospital, in early hours of the morning the next day, from an
abdominal aortic aneurysm, aged 59, two months before the release of what would be his final studio album,
Final Touches.
Four months after Twitty's death,
George Jones included a cover of "
Hello Darlin'" on his album
High-Tech Redneck.
Twitty was buried at Sumner Memorial Gardens in
Gallatin, Tennessee in a red
granite vault, under the name "Harold L. Jenkins".
There is space reserved next to him for his wife and son Michael.
[6]
Posthumous releases
Since his death, Twitty's son Michael and grandson Tre have been
carrying on his musical legacy.
His most recent chart appearance on the
country charts was a duet with
Anita Cochran,
"I Want to Hear a Cheating Song" (2004), which was made possible by
splicing Twitty's vocal from old recordings and even interviews,
recorded over the years.
As a result, Twitty's isolated vocal track
transferred to a digital multi-track and digitally re-assembled into the
new performance.
Similar to the electronic duets of
Patsy Cline and
Jim Reeves,
Hank Williams and
Hank Williams, Jr. or
Nat King Cole and
Natalie Cole, Cochran added her vocal to the already-produced backing tracks along with Twitty's reconstructed vocal.
[citation needed]
Currently, Bear Family Records offers a single-disc collection
featuring 30 songs entitled "Conway Rocks," in addition to "The
Rock'n'Roll Years," a comprehensive 8-disc box set showcasing his
complete early recordings as a rock artist.
[citation needed]
Legal issues
Taxes
Twitty's success in country music was a key factor in his winning a 1983 case,
Harold L. Jenkins (a/k/a Conway Twitty) v. Commissioner in
United States Tax Court.
The
Internal Revenue Service allowed Twitty to
deduct
from his taxes, as an "ordinary and necessary" business expense,
payments he had made in order to repay investors in a defunct fast-food
chain called Twitty Burger.
The chain went under in 1971.
The rule is
that the payment of someone else's debts is not deductible.
Twitty
alleged that his primary motive was "protecting his personal business
reputation."
The court opinion contained testimony from Twitty about his
bond with country music fans.
[7]
Estate
Twitty married four times (twice to Mickey). His widow in 1993,
Delores "Dee" Henry Jenkins, and his four grown children from the
previous marriages, Michael,
Joni,
Kathy and Jimmy Jenkins, engaged in a public dispute over the estate.
Twitty's will had not been updated to account for the fourth marriage,
but Tennessee law reserves one third of any estate to the widow.
After
years of probate, the four children received the rights to Twitty's
music, name and image.
The rest of the estate went to
public auction, where much of the property and memorabilia was sold after his widow rejected the appraised value.
In 2008, controversy again erupted in his family when the four remaining children sued
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
over an agreement that Twitty and his family signed in 1990.
The suit
alleged that the terms of the agreement were not fully understood by the
children, although they were all adults at the time. It sought to
recover copyrights and royalty revenue that the document assigned to the
company.
[8]
55 No.1 hits
Twitty was the only singer to have 55 No. 1 hits
[citation needed] in his career until
George Strait eventually eclipsed the long-held record.
Conway's 55th and final No. 1 was "
Crazy in Love" in 1990 on the
Cashbox country chart.
His final No. 1 on the
Billboard country charts was "
Desperado Love" in 1986.
His first No. 1 was "
It's Only Make Believe" in 1958 on the Hot 100 pop chart.
He is best known for his 1970 No. 1 single "
Hello Darlin'."
[citation needed]
There were multiple weekly music charts in circulation during much of Conway's career:
Billboard,
Record World,
Cashbox, Gavin, Radio, and Records.
Billboard
is the lone surviving publication of the group.
Radio and Records,
emerging in 1973, was bought out by Billboard in 2006 (ending a 33-year
run as an independent music survey) but the R&R brand was phased out
in 2009 altogether.
Conway reached No. 1 on Radio and Records many
times; quite a few of his No. 1 hits in the latter years of his career
reached the top of this publication while peaking in the top five in
Billboard.
The
Gavin Report,
founded in 1958, ended publication in 2002. Cashbox was in publication
from 1942 through 1996.
As is the case with Radio and Records, Conway
reached No. 1 on Cashbox with most of his recordings.
His 55th and final
No. 1 hit, "Crazy in Love", reached No. 1 on Cashbox and No. 3 on
Billboard in the fall of 1990.
Record World started out under the
name Music Vendor in 1946.
The publication's name change took place in
1964. Conway often reached No. 1 on the
Record World country charts with singles that reached the No. 2 or No. 3 position on Billboard's chart.
Billboard began publication in 1894 and was completely different from
what it appears today. It wasn't until the 1930s that music sales and,
later, jukebox play became a focal point of the publication.
In the late
1950s,
Billboard unveiled their
Hot 100
chart which has more commonly become known as the pop singles chart.
Their country chart began in 1944 and is still in publication. Twitty
reached No. 1 40 times on the Billboard country chart from 1968 through
1986.
His 1958 single "It's Only Make Believe" reached No. 1 on
Billboard's Hot 100, giving him an overall total of 41 Billboard No. 1
hits. The 41 Billboard No. 1 hits are often what historians and critics
[who?]
point to whenever citing his No. 1 total even though, technically, he
reached the top 14 additional times with other singles on the other
weekly music charts.
Source: Wikipedia.org
Somebody Come and Play! Earn as You Learn, Grow as You Go!
The Man Inside the Man
from
Sinbad the Sailor Man
A
JMK's Production
Share this page, If you liked It Pass it on, If you loved It Follow Me!
TTFN
CYA Later Taters!
Thanks for watching.
Donnie/ Sinbad the Sailor Man
P.S. Everybody Needs Traffic! Get Top Tier North American Traffic Here!
